It's a battle royal between the #1 and #2 Defense in the NFL, as well as the #6 and #7 Offenses. This could be the GAME OF THE YEAR

The Keys To The Game

For Seattle:
1. Do what you do. Seattle has both the #1 Defense in Yards and PPG, giving up an incredible 9 per game. If it ain't broke, then don't fix it. Limit your mistakes on offense and let the D win this game for you

2. Marshawn Lynch. When they needed the Lynch monster against the 49ers, he crushed them. Seattle has not played a team with as much skill on offense as the Texans yet, and they are going to need to run the football and keep the ball away from the Texans

3. Special Teams. This is key to both teams, a special teams play can be the difference maker in this game

For Houston:
1. We need Super Matty to show up for this game. Schuab has thrown back to back pick 6s that should have cost us 2 games. In the opener a Schuab INT led to a TD on the next play. Bottom line is this: For the Texans to win, Schuab has to play mistake free

2. Health. We have 2 guys that are top 3 at their position who might not play. Brown and Johnson are vital to the success of this team. If both of them can play this week, then our chances of winning go up.

3. We need the D to show up and show off. The biggest weakness up in Seattle is offensive line. Watt, Smith, Cushing, Reed, and Mercilus all need to own the line of scrimmage. We are currently ranked #2 in yards and 24th in points. Not all of that is on the defense. We would rank 12th if you take away the points given up on Special Teams and Offense. Wilson has been sacked 8 times and Okung is OUT, that could be huge.....and i hate to be the one to say this, but Wilson is the shortest QB in the NFL and we have the best pass deflecting team in the NFL, If they dont move Wilson out of the pocket, it could be a long day for him

4. FANS WE NEED YOU! The biggest advantage we have is the home crowd, and that might not be as big of an advantage as simply not having to play in Seattle. Seattle is one of the toughest places to play in the NFL, and the fact that we get this game at home, that's a major plus for us

A note to fans:
its easy for Texan fans to give up hope on this one, but DON'T! The Texans are 2-1 and our biggest weakness is ourselves. We havent seen a team yet that can stop us on offense except our ourselves. We get a little generic in our playcalling, Arian Foster has been dropping passes, Schuab has been throwing picks, our all world WR is hurt, and our pro bowl LT is out. Im not sure it could have gone much worse for our team. We have been pretty much at our floor all season, and yet we are still 2-1. Last season we peeked early and started 11-1 and then finished 13-5. As far as I'm concerned if we can make it to the bye week at 4-3 then we are on the right path.

I had the Seahawks game chalked up as a loss before the season. if we come out like we did this past week vs the Ravens we gonna get smoked. Seahawks d has been legit even with out 2 of their best pass rushers (Irvin and Avril). If our offense starts off slow or if Kubiak does his conservative playcalling on 3rd downs then our crowd better give them hell for it._________________

I would add our secondary as the key to the game. If our secondary can shut down each of Baldwin, Tate, and Rice we can win. Shutting down 2 of them is not enough as one of them gets loose every game and Wilson is much improved in his progressions. Heck, the mediocre Panthers almost had them beat until Wilson found Kearse for a 43 yard TD late. The Texans HAVE to find a way to keep Brice McCain from being isolated or the pass rush simply won't matter just like it didn't with Rivers just looking for the Eddie Royal matchup on McCain on every key down. As far as I'm concerned, Ed Reed needs to shadow McCain everywhere and ask KJ and JJoe to shut down their men (and not commit penalties in doing so). It sure as heck wouldn't hurt to actually have the defense force a turnover or two in this game, but I'll settle for not jumping offsides every other play or letting Seattle possess the ball for an entire half. Marshawn Lynch doesn't worry me as I've never seen the Texans struggle with physical RBs. 3.4 yards per carry isn't exactly "Beast Mode" and I love going against teams that don't throw to their RBs as it frees up our safeties to roam a bit and even dial up a few blitzes.

Honestly, offensively I don't see any reason the Texans can't drive on the Seahawks. They can be run on and their pass rush certainly isn't the same without Irvin and Clemens dinged up. Avril and Bennett have been good additions, but they aren't exactly Suggs & Ngata. Sure, that secondary is dangerous, but this is one game where the accuracy of Schaub should allow us to move the ball as long as we are willing to involve the entire arsenal and not just the same old stuff to AJ and OD. If Hopkins is involved early and Foster actually contributes to the passing game along with Graham in the red zone, the Texans bring much more to the table than the Panthers, 49ers, and Jags do by far. Heck, part of me wants to see the Texans throw a bomb on the first play as EVERYONE will be expecting us to lead with the same Arian run up the middle we always do. Send a message out of the gate that we trust Schaub and aren't afraid of Sherman and Thomas. So many teams get punched in the mouth by the Seahawks and wither away, I think it is critical that the Texans come out swinging in this one.

Personally I find the Seahawks to be quite overrated as this is a team that lost to the Lions, Dolphins, Rams, 49ers, Cardinals and Falcons on the road last year and barely squeaked by the Panthers on the road this year. They are a good team that has the biggest home field advantage in the NFL and can be a Super Bowl contender with that alone, but on the road they are pretty ordinary. Our Texans may not have looked pretty last week, but we've defended the home turf well aside from the Packers buzzsaw and Vikings game without Arian. We can't beat ourselves like we did this week, but WE are the better team, PERIOD!_________________

We are stuck between 2 eras. We need to choose one or the other and we all know which one will help us win games. Andre's timeline is slowly declining and Schaub's days in Houston are for all we know limited. Although we still have some time left and we can even fix them by the end of this year. It'll be hard but this isn't the end of the world. I mean I can see someone like a Mariota or Boyd falling to us if we pick them. Although QB isn't our main objective according to our management, I can see us taking on in round 1 or 2. Either way 1 of those picks will 90% surely will be a OL. 2-1 isn't bad and we still had to shake the rust off of Arian, Andre, and Cush. Hopefully Andre will be back in a week or 2 because we will need him vs the 9ers and the other powerhouses. Lets go Texans!_________________Adopt a Texan:

I'm pretty much expecting a loss here. Sure, we have Clemons, Browner and Avril all in at 100% now, but the texans have the matchup advatage in this game. A few of you have already outlined it: Your Pass Rush vs. Our Oline without Okung. Having to play against JJ Watt not only disrupts our passing game, it also takes zach miller out of it, as he will have to be the double team help on him all game long. Here our the 3 Things we HAVE to do in order to have a shot at winning, followed by the Key for both teams:

-Put up more than 300+ yards of offense. Whether it be ground domination or a solid air attack, we have to be able to move the ball and keep the Texans offense off of the field. The field position battle will be huge in this game. If we fail in this department, the texans probably won this game

-No more than 1 Turnover. Losing momentum+Giving you a short field cannot happen this sunday, we can't afford to do that more than once.....if at all. If we fail in this department, the texans probably won this game

-Win the Special teams battle. If the seahawks end up stealing this game, I'm willing to guarantee, right now, that it was due to: A) Multiple Punts pinning you inside the 10, B) A return of 50+ Yards and/or a TD, C) Forcing a turnover with either a blocked punt or forced fumble. To my knowledge, special teams have hurt the texans the most aside from matt schuab this year and the seahawks have to capitilize.

Key for Both teams: Battle of Field position. It's a major Cog in each of the keys above. Best AVG starting field position will award whichever team the game IMO. The best approach to a good defense is a short field and both teams field great ones. Whichever quarterback has the cleanest game should also propel a victory, but I'm going to stick with field position.

Finals Score Prediction:

Texans- 24

Seattle- 20

Texans take the 4 point lead after a late TD/FG and the seahawks fail to drive the length of the field late in the 4th._________________

Heres an interesting stat: We are the only team in the NFL with a winning record who has a negative point differential....in theory we could get to 3-1 or even 4-1 and still be in the negative_________________2014 Adopt-A-Texan
Andre Johnson
75 catches 802 yards 2 TD
Carrer marks:
1,002 catches 13,463 yards 63 TDs

This should be an interesting one. While there are some differences, from a talent perspective, the Texans and Seahawks are actually pretty close. Offensively, the Texans boast better WRs and a better OL, Seattle has the better QB and RB situation, but the differences aren't some massive gap. On the other side of the ball, Seattle has the best secondary in the NFL, Texans have one of the better front sevens in the NFL, but as stated above - not some HUGE gap.

However, one gap that can't be represented in this? Coaching. On one side, you have Gary Kubiak, a soft spoken and conservative coach, one who is content with building a slight lead and then just playing small ball and keep away; Kubiak would much rather get a 10 point lead and let the run game sled the way for the W. On the other sideline is Pete Carroll, a brash and vibrant coach, one who isn't content taking his foot off the pedal until he's built up a 30 point lead and it's clear that he's drawn first and last blood. Up 20, Carroll is still dialing up blitzes and sending his receivers on deeper routes.

Should be interesting to see two similar teams, led by two drastically different coaches._________________

Saw some tape of Sherman's play last week against the Jags (friend has nfl rewind). One thing i noticed is that he does worse against wr's who are deep threats. i wish we had a deep threat on our roster. If Andre cant go then i can envsion Hopkins having a good game against Sherman._________________